Sealing arrangement for a wheel bearing arrangement of a motor vehicle

ABSTRACT

A seal arrangement for a wheel bearing arrangement of a motor vehicle, including a seal body having a sealing lip, wherein the seal body is arranged on a fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement and the sealing lip abuts a sealing surface of a rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement. The disclosure is distinguished in that a film is applied to the sealing surface.

The invention relates to a seal arrangement for a wheel bearing arrangement of a motor vehicle, according to the type specified in the preamble of claim 1.

A sealing arrangement, which acts between a fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement and a rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement, and which generally comprises a seal body having a sealing lip, is generally known to be associated with the wheel bearings of a motor vehicle, wherein the seal body is arranged on the fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement and the sealing lip abuts a sealing surface formed on the rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement. Reference is made to DE 101 32 429 A1 solely by way of example.

Depending on the design of the wheel bearing arrangement, the sealing lip of the seal body can abut or rotate around either directly on the wheel hub or alternatively on a stainless steel flinger plate. A prerequisite for maintaining the sealing effect is that the sealing surface on which the sealing lip abuts or rotates around has a high, substantially defined surface quality to prevent the so-called conveying effect, namely an entry of water below the sealing lip. If the sealing lip rotates directly on the wheel hub, this means that the wheel hub has to be machined or ground accordingly in this region to ensure the required surface quality. This proves to be disadvantageous since the grinding process required for this purpose causes additional costs and the geometry thus cannot be chosen freely, since the grinding stones have to be guided radially inward to the wheel bearing axis of rotation. The variant of rotating the sealing lip around on a stainless steel flinger plate has also proven to be disadvantageous since generally a ground, long, cylindrical press fit is required for fastening the stainless steel flinger plate on the wheel hub, which is again correspondingly costly to produce. Further disadvantages of this variant are that the flinger plate requires a relatively large amount of installation space both in the axial direction and also in the radial direction and rust penetration can occur on the static press fit.

The invention is based on the object of refining a seal arrangement for a wheel bearing arrangement of a motor vehicle according to the type specified in the preamble of claim 1 in such a way that a very good seal performance is ensured with low costs and little space requirement.

This object is achieved by the characterizing features of claim 1 in conjunction with the features of its preamble.

The dependent claims form advantageous refinements of the invention.

In a known manner, the seal arrangement for a wheel bearing arrangement of a motor vehicle comprises a seal body having a sealing lip, which is arranged on a fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement, and the sealing lip of which is aligned on a rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement and is in sliding contact with a sealing surface on the rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement.

According to the invention, a film is applied to the sealing surface, with which the sealing lip is then in sliding contact or on which the sealing lip runs.

The word film is to be understood hereafter very generally as a thin layer of a substance/material having a layer thickness ≤0.3 mm.

An advantage of the design according to the invention is that a friction-optimized adjustment of the surface of the sealing surface is enabled in a simple manner by appropriate selection of the film or the surface quality of the film. A further advantage of the design according to the invention is that—since now a grinding process or cylindrical seat is no longer required for the flinger plate—a significantly less expensive production is ensured, and significantly less installation space is required (=>no wasted space for flinger plate in the axial and radial direction).

The film is preferably formed thin-layered, having a layer thickness ≤0.2 mm, preferably ≤0.1 mm.

The film is preferably connected here to the sealing surface in a materially-bonded manner, in particular by means of adhesive bonding, and/or in a friction-locked manner, for example, by means of shrinking. This advantageously ensures that the film is fastened inexpensively and quickly on the sealing surface.

According to one particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, the film is made of plastic, low-corrosion metal, or composite material. In addition to high resistance to corrosion, this also ensures good deformability of the film in particular. It is also advantageous that, due to the above design, the film is low-wear and thus a long service life is ensured.

A further preferred embodiment of the invention provides that the film has a surface quality having a roughness depth of Rz<10 μm. This has the positive effect that low wear can be combined with good friction properties.

The fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement is preferably a fixed bearing ring of a roller bearing and the rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement having the sealing surface is a wheel hub.

A particularly compact and space-saving embodiment is distinguished in that a circumferential groove extending in the axial direction is introduced into the wheel hub, the bottom surface or base of the groove forming the sealing surface having the film.

Further advantages and possible applications of the present invention will be apparent from the following description in conjunction with the exemplary embodiments illustrated in the drawing.

In the figures:

FIG. 1 shows a side view of a seal arrangement for a wheel bearing arrangement of a motor vehicle according to the prior art;

FIG. 2 shows an enlarged illustration of the circled detail from FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment according to the invention of the seal arrangement.

FIG. 1 shows a wheel bearing arrangement of a motor vehicle identified as a whole by the reference numeral 10. In a known manner, a wheel hub 12 is rotatably mounted via a roller bearing 14. The wheel hub 12 in turn has a drive connection to an articulated shaft 18.

In this case—as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2—a seal arrangement identified as a whole by the reference numeral 100 is arranged between the rotating part of the wheel bearing arrangement 10, the wheel hub 12 here, and the fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement 10, the fixed bearing ring 14-1 of the roller bearing 14 here.

The seal arrangement 100 comprises a seal body 110 having two sealing lips 112, which is formed from elastomer and is mounted on the fixed bearing ring 14-1 of the roller bearing 14. As can be seen in particular in FIG. 2, the sealing lips 112 abut under pre-tension a flinger plate 114, which is arranged in a groove 20 of the wheel hub 12, is fastened in a rotationally-fixed manner to the wheel hub 12, and is made of stainless steel. That is, the sealing lips 112 are in sliding contact with the rotating sealing surface 116 formed on the flinger plate.

A disadvantage of the prior art is in particular that, due to the flinger plate 114, the seal arrangement 100 is expensive to produce (installation of the flinger plate), and that the flinger plate 114 requires a comparatively large amount of installation space in the axial and radial direction a, r.

This is where the invention begins:

As FIG. 3 shows, the groove base 20-1 of the groove 20 in the wheel hub 12 is provided with a film 118. That is, the sealing lips 112 are in sliding contact with the film 118 forming the rotating sealing surface 116. In the present case, the film 118 is a film made of a composite material having a layer thickness <0.2 mm, which was fastened by means of adhesive bonding and thus particularly inexpensively to the groove base 20-1 of the groove 20 of the wheel hub 12.

By means of the film 118, the friction-optimized adjustment of the sealing elements sealing lips 112 and sealing surface 116 necessary for an optimal sealing effect is now advantageously possible in a simple manner.

For the sake of completeness, it is to be noted that the groove 20 can now also be made significantly smaller both in the axial direction a and in the radial direction r, so that the seal arrangement 100 according to the invention also requires significantly less installation space. 

1-8. (canceled)
 9. A seal arrangement or a wheel bearing arrangement of a motor vehicle, comprising: a seal body having a sealing lip, wherein the seal body is arranged on a fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement and the sealing lip abuts a sealing surface of a rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement, wherein a film is applied to the sealing surface.
 10. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 9, wherein the film has a layer thickness (d) of ≤0.3 mm
 11. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 9, wherein the film is connected to the sealing surface in a materially-bonded and/or friction-locked manner
 12. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 11, wherein the material-bonded connection is produced by means of adhesive bonding and the friction-locked connection is produced by means of shrinking.
 13. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 9, wherein the film is made of plastic, metal, or composite material.
 14. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 9, wherein the film has a surface quality having a roughness depth (Rz) of Rz<10 μm.
 15. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 9, wherein the fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement is a fixed bearing ring of a roller bearing and the rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement having the sealing surface is a wheel hub.
 16. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 15, wherein the wheel hub has a circumferential groove extending in the axial direction, the groove base of which forms the sealing surface.
 17. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 10, wherein the film is connected to the sealing surface in a materially-bonded and/or friction-locked manner
 18. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 10, wherein the film is made of plastic, metal, or composite material.
 19. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 11, wherein the film is made of plastic, metal, or composite material.
 20. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 12, wherein the film is made of plastic, metal, or composite material.
 21. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 10, wherein the film has a surface quality having a roughness depth (Rz) of Rz<10 μm.
 22. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 11, wherein the film has a surface quality having a roughness depth (Rz) of Rz<10 μm.
 23. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 12, wherein the film has a surface quality having a roughness depth (Rz) of Rz<10 μm.
 24. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 13, wherein the film has a surface quality having a roughness depth (Rz) of Rz<10 μm.
 25. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 10, wherein the fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement is a fixed bearing ring of a roller bearing and the rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement having the sealing surface is a wheel hub.
 26. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 11, wherein the fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement is a fixed bearing ring of a roller bearing and the rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement having the sealing surface is a wheel hub.
 27. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 12, wherein the fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement is a fixed bearing ring of a roller bearing and the rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement having the sealing surface is a wheel hub.
 28. The seal arrangement as claimed in claim 13, wherein the fixed component of the wheel bearing arrangement is a fixed bearing ring of a roller bearing and the rotating component of the wheel bearing arrangement having the sealing surface is a wheel hub. 